speaking, uh, as a formerly-trafficked sex worker, it’s extremely difficult to come forward as a trafficking victim in countries where sex work is criminalized; you just… get criminalized under those same anti-prostitution laws. of course reported trafficking would increase when the sole fact of coming forward as a sex worker at all no longer endangers you.
This line of argument is the same one that you see with conservatives who point to the increase in divorce rates as proof that making divorce safer is endangering marriage, while ignoring the massive drops in domestic abuse, murder, and suicide.
It’s a shot argument with them, and it’s a shot argument here.
In WWI, when they introduced helmets, they saw a sudden spike in head injuries.
What the casual observer may miss was that they were seeing the increase because of a dramatic decrease in deaths from head wounds.
Statistics can’t stand on their own they need context
This is right after Gandalf says, “A balrog. A demon of the ancient world.”
I just love how PJ chose to cut to Legolas’ face because he is exactly who you should cut to at this moment. You need an elf to show what it really means. Other than Gandalf, the rest of the Fellowship can sense something is gravely wrong, but they don’t understand just how grave. Like Gandalf, Legolas knows the terror. He understands the gravity of what lies around that corner. He’s got a piddly little bow and he is mere steps away from a demon of the ancient world. This frame shows a kid coming to the realisation that he is way out of his depth, that this mission will take him to places he only knew to exist in legends of the Elder Days, a time long gone, barely history.
He’s probably one of the youngest elves in Middle Earth at this point. He probably grew up on stories of the balrogs, slaying the ancient High Kings of the Eldar and tearing Middle Earth apart, thousands and thousands of years ago. They are legends in old crumbling books, read illicitly by a little elfling who was kept up at night by the terrible tales.They are the monsters under the bed and the shadows in the heart of the forest. They are the beasts behind the winged hordes of hell, that older elves, who’ve seen the worst that Arda has to offer, always assured him were no more than distant nightmares, stories relegated to dust and ancient memory. Except now they are real. They are here. They are coming.
The best part is that in the books he just starts screaming when he lays eyes on it
In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left hand it held a whip of many thongs.
‘Ai! ai! wailed Legolas. “A Balrog! A Balrog has come!’
Legolas can be relied upon to have the correct reaction to everything.
It is not necessarily normal, or socially appropriate, or sane, but it is always 100% correct.
Today is National Coming Out day and I wanted to reflect on my personal experience coming out.
If you would have told me 10+ years ago, that I would be an out and proud Transman inspiring others to live their authentic lives… I would have said, “You must have mistaken me with someone else.”
You see, courage doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, and for me it took over a decade. I was in your shoes at one point, terrified of what the world had in store for me as a member of the LGBTQ community. I would pray to not be the way that I was and hope to wake up the next morning “cured.”
When I realized that wouldn’t happen, I had to figure out ways to be happy the way that I am. I began to love myself for me and found pride in my identity. I took baby steps coming out to trusted friends and made my own little support system. Through them I gained my strength and am able to stand in front of you today unafraid and unapologetically myself.
Was coming out difficult?
Extremely.
Was it worth it?
Every second of it.
My only regret in my coming out process was that I didn’t do it sooner.
To anyone that has come out: I applaud you on your courage and wish you all the best on your journey.
To anyone who has yet to come out: Know that in time you will find your strength and that you have a whole community waiting for you.
It strikes me that the lyrics to “Mr. Sandman” are inordinately concerned with ensuring that the resulting man of our dreams has only the customary complement of various anatomic features.
“Two lips”?
“A pair of eyes”?
As opposed to what?
“Two lips like roses and clover,” as opposed to “a gaping, lipless maw that I suppose smells like roses,” “two leathery black lips, dripping with blood,” or “six lips arranged such that the mouth looks like a three-leaf clover when fully opened.”
“A pair of eyes with a come-hither gleam,” as opposed to “one eye, hypnotic and unblinking, which will rob you of your free will upon first eye contact,” “two eyes that barely bother to look at me, and really don’t care if I’m around or not,” or “six hundred eyes nested in a body of pure flame, like the angels of old, that no mere mortal can resist.”
Honestly, I’m not sure they were specific enough about the sheer banality they’re hoping to receive here. They didn’t specify the number of arms and legs, for example, so they could totally end up with a centaur or a mermaid. And that line about “lots of wavy hair like Liberace,” which entirely fails to specify where that hair should be? Might as well be asking for a particularly well-groomed Sasquatch at that point.
Just saying. If you’re going to ask a supernatural being for a favor, be very specific, because it probably won’t make the same basic assumptions about desirability that you do.
To be fair, we can’t say for certain that the vocalist wouldn’t be perfectly happy with a well-coiffed Sasquatch.
headcanon: since meeting ant man, no one dares to fuck with spider man cause they think he can control spiders and fuck that tbh. he defeats villains by threatening to order spiders to infest their house,, his success rate is 100%, new york is crime-free in less than a month,
antman:
villain: what you gonna do huh? steal my picnic food? lmao lemme get the magnifying glass
spiderman:
villain:
villain: ill just turn myself in,
Um actually,
it was bold of me to assume he wouldnt actually do this in canon,
happy world mental health day everyone, reminder to everyone (including myself) that it’s okay not to be okay and we don’t need to be so hard on ourselves. lots of love xx
Steel Phoenix Studios 